WASHINGTON — With whispers of a staffing purge permeating the West Wing, the White House pushed back Friday and insisted that reports of tumult and imminent departures are overblown.
Chief of staff John Kelly, himself the subject of rumors that his days on the job are numbered, assured a group of staffers their jobs were safe, at least for now.
“The chief of staff actually spoke to a number of staff this morning reassuring them that there were no immediate personnel changes at this time and that people shouldn’t be concerned,” said press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “We should do exactly what we do every day, and that’s come to work and do the very best job that we can, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. That’s exactly what we’re focused on.”
But days after President Donald Trump’s secretary of state was ousted, many close to the president think more upheaval is coming soon.
Trump is moving toward replacing national security adviser H.R. McMaster but has not settled on exact timing or a successor, according to four people with knowledge of White House deliberations. Kelly has also worn on the president, confidants of the president said. And Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, under fire for ethics violations, appears to be grasping to keep his job.
With speculation about McMaster’s future intense, Sanders on Friday gave a vote of confidence to the national security adviser, saying that she had spoken to the president the night before and that no changes were coming.
But the air of stability the White House tried to project felt more like a pause than a permanent shift.
An increasingly confident Trump is privately weighing still more changes, expressing frustration with some aides and sifting through possible replacements. Reports of tumult in the administration were at such a feverish pitch — even on Trump’s beloved Fox News — that the president on Thursday reflected on the latest staff departures during an Oval Office conversation with Kelly and Vice President Mike Pence.
With a laugh, Trump said: “Who’s next?”
It’s the very question that has the whole White House on edge.
Kelly has told confidants that he believes he can weather the current storm and that he does not plan to quit. But he has grown increasingly frustrated with the constant turmoil in the West Wing, believing at times that Trump intentionally fuels the chaos to keep his staff on its toes and his name in media headlines, according to a person familiar with the chief of staff’s thinking. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.
This account of the tensions in the White House is based on conversations with 10 officials inside the White House and familiar with West Wing deliberations, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal matters.
After more than 14 months in office, Trump is reshaping his administration, seeking people more likely to fall in line with his policies and tolerate his moods. The factionalism that defined the early days of his tenure has faded, and he has lost some of the close aides who could manage his volatile impulses. To some, the White House is increasingly taking on the feel of a squad of cheerleaders more than a team of rivals.
Trump’s administration has set records for turnover among senior administration aides. Top economic adviser Gary Cohn and communications director Hope Hicks are leaving the White House in coming weeks. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was just unceremoniously ousted. And junior-level aides were particularly troubled by the abrupt exit this week of Trump personal assistant John McEntee, who was removed from his job and escorted off White House grounds — then quickly handed a job on Trump’s re-election campaign.
In private conversations in recent weeks with aides and friends, Trump has reflected on his desire to reshape the administration. Though the drumbeat of the ongoing Russia probe has only grown louder, the president believes that his recent decisions on tariffs and North Korea have breathed new life into his administration, and he is eager to take more bold steps that make his own mark. He has told confidants he wants to rid himself of staffers who hold him back.
Trump chafes at McMaster’s demeanor, complaining that his aide lectures him, according to three current and former administration officials. Officials said McMaster has been sidelined in some internal discussions, with Kelly taking on a more active role in foreign policy decisions, because of the personal tensions.
The president and McMaster have disagreed on a number of issues — including the Iran deal and the U.S. approach to North Korea — and the national security adviser has also clashed with Kelly and Defense Secretary James Mattis, according to the officials.
During an earlier round of Trump discontent with his national security adviser, there was White House talk of providing McMaster, a three-star general, with a soft landing by giving him a fourth star along with a command in a priority area such as Afghanistan or Korea, according to a former senior administration official.
Kelly and Mattis both have said they want the national security adviser to have a graceful exit when he departs. While they have had their disagreements with McMaster, they feel that his record of service demands respect and they want to broadcast that soft landings are possible from the Trump administration.
Kelly has been credited with imposing order on the chaotic West Wing, but his relationship with Trump has come under strain, as well.
